I’ve been finding my bearings this week, walking out from the mill (with the dogs) and experimenting with various circular walks – the more off-road and beach focused the better, as far as Bob and Bran are concerned.
On Friday (a day of pounding hail and high winds) I took a walk to the rat stane and today (in better weather) I asked Tom to walk back to Pennyseorach with me, with a camera.
But what on earth is the rat stane, I hear you ask?
This is the rat stane.
The OS survey of 1958 records the site as follows:
Coins and other small objects still shone beneath the surface of the murky water when we looked there again today.
I enjoy such places of local ritual, and wonder a lot about them. Did the “font” once contain a turning stone (like similar stones I’ve seen in Islay and Ireland)? Was there a well nearby?
Having approached Pennyseorach on foot from the other direction earlier in the week, I wanted to try an up and over approach around the headland (against Tom’s better advice, I have to say)
This is not an ascent I would want to attempt later in the year (there already being brambles and bracken stems and nettles a plenty, and it only March) but I’m very glad we made it up to the top of the cliffs today because the view from up there is glorious.
Above us, larks and rock pipits rose singing from the hillside, a hare darted away, and the air smelt powerfully of gorse. Spring has definitely sprung!
We are enjoying pottering about on foot around our new patch enormously – treading new paths, finding our bearings.
. . . and the dogs are also definitely in their element.
Next week the KDD team will be busy with our annual stock take. Then the week following, we’ll have Colour at Work back in stock, and will also be able to make an announcement about our brand new project. Stay tuned!
Hope your Sunday includes some sunshine, and possibly a lark or new lamb or two.
thank you for another glimpse into your fascinating life. Beautiful in every way. What is a turning stone? I googled but found no reference other than a casino. You
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They are stones that were placed in hollows – on the pedestals of Celtic crosses for example – which local people turned for ritual purposes – making wishes or hoping for healing from illness and so on
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Thank you. Fascinating. You know so much! Thank you for sharing. 
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You can see one such stone at the foot of this beautiful carved cross in Islay https://canmore.org.uk/collection/791688
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I see it! Thank you. so interesting – you can see just the one maybe others are underneath.
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A couple of days ago, I was taking photos of the first little Iris poking their intense purple heads out. This morning, we have -8 degrees C and several inches of snow! This is Spring in the Rocky Mountain region! I finished a new jumper over the weekend (made from some gorgeous Lammermuir wool) so I am thrilled to have cold weather so I can wear it for the next few days! Thank you for this wonderful post! I love each one!!
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I always love reading your posts and the photographs are amazing..
The ‘stane’ is interesting, as here in the Netherlands, a stone is called a ‘steen’, which is pronounced the same as ‘stane’. Probably from the same source?
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yes – there are so many crossovers between Scots, Dutch, German, and northern / nordic languages.
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Your book arrived here in Portland, Oregon USA. It is beautiful 💟🌟🤗.
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Hope you enjoy the book, Marti!
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I have been totally in to cherry blossoms …. Making a crocheted Arne and Carlos afghan. So many shades of pink and white with a little brown and green thrown in. Nature is the best teacher. Your book is inspirational.
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Kate, it is a true joy to see your posts with the very fine photographs of the remarkable place where you and Tom and those two adventurous dogs live. Such a contrast to my own neighborhood in NYC.
Little by little, spring is trying to arrive here. Yesterday, the rain and wind continued for …10 hours or so. Today the sky was a brilliant blue but the air was colder than yesterday. 
I stayed indoors today and finished some socks I’d been knitting for a while off and on. I photographed their stripes against a striped pullover I knitted some years ago following one of your fine patterns. The photo is posted on my IG page and I have credited you for the design of the pullover.
Please have a peek if you like!  http://www.instagram.com/fgoakley
Continued best wishes to you and yours. Frances xo
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Larks for sure are about, still waiting for field born lambs. Been out for an early cruise, it’s cold!
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I’m loving these pictures of your new patch. (I trust the Paul McCartney earworm will wriggle away eventually!)
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Hi Kate
I live in central west New South Wales Australia. Very different countryside to you.
I am not a blogger but have been reading your blog for some time now.
I love your knitting and I am also a knitter and patch worker.
I just love the area you live in and would love to come back to Scotland one day and
explore more of your country. it looks like the most ideal place to be, to solve the problems and stresses we have in our lives. Your Millhouse looks amazing and a world away from all the pressures of everyday life.
Enjoy and stay healthy
Deborah Smith
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Just wondered if it is you Kate walking along the shore line in photography six.
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Yes, that’s me
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could it be a rent stone (corruption of rent to rat??). Used for paying rent in time of plague where the hollow was filled with vinegar………
just a thought…..it looks like ones I have seen…..
Sarah K
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Thanks so much for this pointer, Sarah – it looks very similar to this Cumbrian one doesn’t it? https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=55236&all=1&noglimit=1
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There are several other examples at geograph.org.uk – Ackworth near Pontefract and Zennor in Cornwall…….
Sarah K
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Gosh, Sarah, they are completely fascinating aren’t they – early historical honesty boxes enabling payment for goods or services at settlement boundaries.
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You’re only a stone’s throw from us now! ;)
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Oh! I want a rat stane at our home by the lake…. My husband’s Swedish cousins were married for centuries at the church in Rättvik ( pronounced Rat vik). Certainly a gathering place.
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